


The Spy who Loved Me - London Spy drabbles

by Skylocked



Category: London Spy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, First Meetings, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Tumblr drabbles, basically but not quite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 17:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5793193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylocked/pseuds/Skylocked
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of my London Spy tumblr drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Spy who Loved Me - London Spy drabbles

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the title is from Madonna's Austin Powers song [Beautiful Stranger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlMMeVw0W5Y).

__

> _Danny likes cafés. He enjoys the romantic feeling of sitting at a table and watching people come and go while sipping comfort from an expertly blended cup of coffee. He comes to this particular cafe regularly to pass the time and to get inspiration. This time however, he finds his eyes drawn to a beautiful stranger sitting close by and his mind intrigued as to the name that goes with those piercing, gray eyes._

* * *

Danny sees him from his usual seat at the front of the cafe. The man looks to be lost in his thoughts, watching but not really seeing; or maybe he sees too much. Danny is intrigued. Not only is the stranger sitting alone at a corner of the cafe where no one could see him unless they were trying to, but he is, for lack of a better word, beautiful.

There is an air of melancholy about his chiseled features and his eyes have that look about them of someone who’s experienced all the grief in the world. Danny feels a pang of sadness in his heart and he wonders if perhaps he is reading too much about this beautiful stranger, or if maybe this person could be feeling just as lost and alone as he is.

Danny sighs and takes a slow sip of his coffee. Could he dare approach? Maybe the stranger is actually waiting for someone. Maybe he just wants to be left alone. 

What if he is waiting for someone to notice him?

Danny fights the doubts in his head and, feeling the most nervous he has in a long while, he makes his choice.

“Excuse me?” Danny approaches the stranger, a shy smile on his face. The man looks up at him and Danny can feel him tense without even laying a finger on him. Perhaps this hasn’t been a good idea. He feels his resolve shatter.

“Hi um, I’m sorry, I just… I thought.” The stranger has yet to say anything, but his cool-gray eyes fixate on him with an intensity that makes Danny’s knees feel weak. 

“My name is Danny” He extends his hand towards the man not really knowing why and not really expecting the gesture to be reciprocated. “I just wanted to say hello I suppose. I saw you sitting here alone and thought, maybe you wouldn’t mind some company?” 

Danny’s heart is beating hard against his chest. He can feel his face grow hot and his hands begin to sweat as he's waiting, hand still extended, for a reaction, _any reaction._

It feels like an eternity while Danny stands there feeling himself being analysed by those piercing eyes, as if the other is trying to read him whole, deconstruct him, and find out everything there is to know about him. Danny suddenly feels extremely exposed.

“I’m sorry, I guess I got it wrong, I’ll just…” He lowers his hand to his sides and his eyes to the ground embarrassed. He’s read everything wrong and has possibly made this London stranger uncomfortable with his prying.

“My name is Joe” Danny looks up startled to hear the other man speak. The smile comes to his face before he even realizes. Joe seems surprised and Danny doesn’t know what to make of it.

“Joe!” Danny says a bit more enthusiastically than he’d meant. He is simply feeling to excited. Sharing a name is always a good start. “Right um, well, would you mind?” Danny gestures towards the empty seat in front of him and across from Joe.

“I do not wish to intrude if you’re busy, and I won’t be cross if you tell me to just go away now” Danny says and he is really trying to hide his excitement but it’s not working out. He knows he has a stupid smile plastered on his face.

Joe looks at the empty seat and then back at him as if trying to decide what’s his best course of action. It takes a while but he finally nods for Danny to seat. Danny doesn’t let out a giddy giggle, he is not a school boy anymore, of course not.

Joe doesn’t really seem to notice, or if he does, he doesn’t seem to mind much.

Danny sits down, pulls his chair closer to the table and rests his face on his hands using his elbows for support. He knows he looks like a child now, but he doesn’t even care.

“So, um, may I ask what you’re doing sitting here alone drinking tea and looking all mysterious for? Are you on lunch break perhaps?”

Joe tenses again and Danny wonders if he’s said something wrong.

“I am sorry again, please forgive me if I speak too much, you don’t have to answer any of my questions. Honestly, I would not want to make you uncomfortable with my presence. Would you rather I leave you alone?” He says in a run on sentence that leaves him out of breath. He doesn’t really want to leave, but he doesn’t want to push.

“No, I’m sorry. It’s just, I’m not used to people approaching me so suddenly. It just seems a bit… odd” Joe says and Danny has a feeling that there’s something else hidden behind his words.

“Oh” Is all he manages to say. He really is at a loss for words and doesn’t know how to break the tension and awkwardness of the moment. Maybe he should have thought things through before deciding to approach this man who he seriously has read horrendously wrong.

Joe is studying him again, looking for…whatever it is he is looking for, Danny has no clue. They remain quiet for a while. Danny instinctively shields himself behind his cup of coffee pretending to drink. Joe is still looking at him. He has to say something, anything. He doesn’t like prolonged silence.

“Um…” Really? What does one say in moments like this? Perhaps he should just call it quits and leave and berate himself for this somewhere else, away from the intimidating stare of the man from the cafe.

“I was simply watching the people” Joe says and Danny just stares at him like it’s the first time he’s heard anyone speak.

“I like to watch people as they pass and wonder about what might be going through their minds” 

Joe’s words flow easily from his lips and Danny has to remind himself to look back up at the whole of his face because staring at another man’s lips and wondering what they might feel like against yours without them knowing is extremely rude.

“Oh, that’s lovely” Danny blushes “I mean, I… it’s not something… oh gods.” Danny laughs and runs his fingers through his already messy hair. What even is he doing?

He apologizes once again. Since when had he become so bad at chatting up strangers at quaint little cafes?

Joe’s lips curve in an almost imperceptible smile and Danny’s heart skips a beat.

“You smiled” He blurts out before he can stop himself. He really should work on his brain to mouth filters.

Joe’s face immediately hardens and he looks away from Danny, and… _is that pink dusting his nose? Is Joe…blushing?_

Danny’s own smile widens and suddenly the overcast skies of London don’t seem all that gray.

“I think I like your smile” Danny says and it sounds so sincere even he is surprised. Joe is looking at him with a wide eyed stare that makes Danny panic a little.

“I… Why did you approach me?”

“Pardon?” The question throws Danny out of balance. The muscles on Joe’s face are stiff, his mouth taut and he is, Danny notices, gripping the table with more force than should be necessary. 

“Why did you approach me?” Danny swallows and he finds himself needing to pour out all the thoughts that had gone through his head before he’d decided to try and start a conversation with Joe.

“Because…” he pauses taking a deep breath as he steels himself and stares Joe in the eyes unwilling to let fear make him look away. 

“Because I saw you sitting here and your eyes looked sad to me and I wondered. Could it be possible that this stranger, whom I have never seen before in my life, be feeling just as lost and alone as I am right now? Could it be possible that he might want someone to approach him just as badly as I do? Could it be that he sits there, or somewhere else, day in and day out waiting for someone to just try and strike up conversation with him just as I do?” 

“And so I said to myself, why not me? Why not be the one to try? Why not take a chance? I mean, otherwise, how do you know? Right?” Danny finishes out of breath, his hands are shaking and he feels like he’s just run a marathon.

He waits for Joe to say anything, but the man just sits there looking at Danny but also not looking at him. The silence seems to stretch endlessly as the fear begins to rise in Danny’s chest once again, maybe his honesty had been a little too much. He finds he doesn’t mind too terribly, as scared and vulnerable as he was feeling, he’d take honesty over lying any day.

“I’m sorry, my mouth seems to have run away with me again. I’ll just go now. Please forget I said anything, seems I got everything wrong again.”

Danny stands up from his chair gathering his coat and his phone and refusing to look at Joe any longer. He’s done enough damage for the day. He has barely turned around to leave when Joe finally speaks.

“Stay” The word comes out rushed and pleading and Danny turns around so fast he feels himself get dizzy. Joe is looking at him with so much emotion behind his eyes that Danny’s breath hitches in his throat.

“Please, don’t go” Danny’s heart jumps inside his chest. He stands there paralyzed and has to remind himself to breathe.

“…really?” Is all he manages when he is finally able to speak again.

Joe nods and gulps before extending his hand to Danny.

“I’m sorry, my name is Alex”

Danny stares at Joe… Alex? _He’d lied about his name?_ He feels his chest contract at the stab of pain in his heart. _Why?_

Danny lowers his gaze to Alex’s extended hand. He doesn’t know what to think or why it bothers him so much that Jo… Alex, would lie about something so simple as a name. If he hadn’t wanted to tell Danny his name, he should have just said so, why lie about it?

Danny looks back up to search the stranger’s eyes for answers hoping to find some truth in them, because this person, who Danny isn’t even sure what his name is anymore, truly is a stranger, a man he knows nothing about and to whom he’d just confided his innermost thoughts and hopes. Danny can’t help the sting of betrayal from pinching at his heart. At least the stranger seems to notice the turmoil in Danny’s head for he looks at Danny with a worried expression. Danny wonders if the worry is also as fake as the name. He can’t help it.

“Are you ok?”

Three simple words, but Danny’s face falls. He knows he is staring, he knows his body is trembling, and he knows his face betrays all the emotion he is feeling. But he doesn’t know why the stranger’s words resonate so hard in him; why the words carry such weight. 

Maybe it’s the way he’s said them, as if nothing else in the world matters.

“Yes” Danny breathes out shakily. “I’m… I’m fine…” He doesn’t even believe the words himself. He is feeling anything but fine. 

The stranger frowns, lowers his hand, looks away.

“I have upset you, I’m sorry” The hurt noticeable in his fallen gaze and slumping shoulders makes Danny wince. As much as he feels cheated, his brain is also telling him that this person should never look this defeated.

“No, yes… I mean.” He must remain honest, he needs to figure out what is going on and if anything can be recovered from this whole mess.

“Why did you lie? About your name I mean?” He finds himself asking. He can’t really say anything else until hears an answer, a truthful one he hopes.

Joe, Alex, or whatever his name is, tentatively raises his eyes towards him again. He is biting at his lower lip and looking like he wants to say something but can’t bring himself to. 

Danny sighs defeated. “Listen, it’s ok, it’s all fine. I won’t say I understand, because I really don’t but it’s ok. You don’t have to tell me, I just… I wish you had just told me to go away instead.”

The words sting as they leave his lips and Danny sees the other man wince upon hearing them. But they are the truth and Danny hasn’t regretted telling the truth in a very long time.

“Because, I just poured out my feelings to a complete stranger who I thought might understand just to find out that he couldn’t even trust me enough to tell me his real name. It is not the best feeling in the world, you know?” Danny feels angry at the lack of response. He just wants to know why? That’s all. The stranger doesn’t even need to apologize to him, he doesn’t really know him at all, but Danny wants to at least hear a reason, whatever that may be. But judging by the man’s silence, he won’t be getting any answers.

Danny turns around again and walks away feeling his heart growing heavier at each step he takes. It is raining outside but he is determined not to look back.

* * *

He feels the man’s presence behind him before he can even hear his approach. Soon there’s a hand pulling at his wrist, not really to make him stop and turn he realizes, but to find leverage.

“Please, Danny. It’s not… I can’t” 

It’s the desperation he imagines in the way the stranger’s voice cries out his name what makes him stop, and it is the hope from learning the stranger has run after him in the rain blooming in his heart that makes him turn around to face him.

The rain is pouring on both of them, the iciness of the droplets making his body shiver and his hands tremble, or so Danny tells himself. 

“Why?” Danny repeats the question searching the other man’s eyes for answers once again. He looks as if he is battling and internal struggle with himself. Does he speak? Does he say the truth? Or is it better to say nothing and let things go?

_“Whatever the reason is…”_ Danny’s voice is soft and quivering from the cold or from something else, he is not too sure. 

_“…You can tell me, please?”_ He asks the last part following the urge to bring his hand to the man’s face. His skin is wet and icy cold and Danny doesn’t know if the shiver he feels run through the other is from the weather or from the touch of his hand. He hopes it is the latter.

The stranger brings his hand up and puts it over Danny’s holding it in place and closes his eyes taking and releasing a breath. Once his eyes flutter back open, he looks calm. Danny holds his breath.

“I was scared” The stranger says and Danny knows he is telling the truth this time. He knows it in his heart before he accepts it in his brain. 

Danny exhales slowly.

“I saw you walk towards me and I thought, why is this person coming my way? Why are they looking at me like they know me? Why are they smiling at me?”

Danny can’t help the little smile that settles on his face.

“And I panicked because…” He pauses, searches Danny’s face, bites at his lips, frowns, looks away and back and Danny thinks he might stop talking. He doesn’t. “Because in my line of work, meetings like ours just don’t happen.”

Danny fights away the impulse to ask what kind of job would make a man grow so suspicious of a simple interaction with a stranger. He knows already that he won’t get an answer to that, and he doesn’t know that he would like the answer if he were to get one. 

“My name is Alex, at least, that’s the name I prefer. I didn’t lie about that and I didn’t lie about wanting you to stay. I am sorry I made you believe that I had and I’m even more sorry that I made you upset.”

Danny hears a sob escape him, he hadn’t even noticed when he started to cry. Alex looks at him terrified, probably thinking that he’s done something wrong again. He releases Danny’s hand and takes an involuntary step back. Danny won’t allow him to run away. He takes hold of Alex’s hand and wipes away at his tears.

“I’m sorry. I’m just so… relieved.” Danny lets our a shaky laugh, sniffles once more and moves his soaking hair away from his face nervously. 

Alex looks at him confused but also noticeably relieved. Danny is glad,

“Your name is Alex” Danny states and Alex nods. “My name is Danny” He continues. “And I think we should start this over again. Would you like to be my friend?” Danny smiles openly and honestly and the way Alex’s face seems to lit up at his words lifts up the weight Danny has been feeling off his chest.

“Yes” 

Alex is smiling, his face free of the tension that had been present there since the moment Danny had approached him back at the cafe. And if Danny's body is going into hypothermia from standing in wintry London rain or it’s just the warmth from seeing Alex smile like that, it really doesn’t matter. Danny just knows that he is feeling too happy to care.

Alex sneezes. 

“We should probably find some cover from this weather” Danny chuckles.

Alex stares at him intently, again. Danny should probably try to start getting used to it.

“My flat isn’t too far from here” Alex mutters looking away shyly and it takes a bit for the words to register in Danny’s brain as the invitation that they are. His pulse jumps and he really shouldn’t be feeling as nervous about it as he does. _It’s just so they can get out of the rain._ He admonishes himself.

“Then I suppose you better lead the way” Danny simply says.

Alex fixes his eyes on Danny and then on his hands. Danny follows his gaze and…

oh… ok

He offers Alex his hand.

“I’m not much of a runner but this way I might be able to keep up” He jokes lightheartedly

Alex hesitates only briefly before taking Danny’s hand in his then turns his back to Danny and breaks into an easy run. Danny is happy to follow.

He doesn’t even feel bad that people are probably looking at them like they’re some crazy delinquents the way they’re running like that in the rain through the streets of London. He doesn’t even care that Alex is leading him away from the direction of his own flat. And he cares even less that his clothes are completely drenched and his shoes will get ruined from too much water getting in them.

All he cares about is this moment with this man, this London stranger, that chose to give him a chance. And as he runs hand in hand with Alex, Danny wonders how much running will happen from now on and how long until they have ran so much that they leave their separate worlds behind and find a new place where they are no longer strangers to each other.

Alex turns to glance back at him for a moment and Danny flashes him a smile. 

Alex smiles back.

Danny hopes the running doesn’t take too long.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://alexturnerthebanker.tumblr.com/post/135220620598/alex-was-sitting-in-a-cafe-near-mi6-sipping-tea) post from alexturnerthebanker on tumblr


End file.
